Kilolo CVP Visit of Nov 13-09

2008 CVP
Companion Village Project
Visit Report
1st visit Year Two
November 13th, 2009



Village Kilolo
Pastor Yohana Kinganga
Companion King of Kings Lutheran Church
Attendees
Weather for the past month
Reporters
………………………………………………
Sunny and dry
Ibrahim Wikedzi and Fred Bergsrud

We started the meeting with about…….people, the crowd were eagerly to learn (Note; Kilolo was the best 2008-CVP by yielding the highest number of corn bags as compared to others (11 bags and 3 tins of shelled corn per half acre plot). Also they followed the agronomic practices we instructed them and recorded events in their box file, having Fred Bergsrud (Retired Professor at U of M) at the meeting, he gave them A+
Pastor Kinganga, were invited by several farmers to go out to their farms to demonstrate the agronomic practices we taught him through CVP. On our way to the church we saw some field which the corn stalks were not burnt but chopped down and kept in rows, ready for planting when rain comes. “The words are getting out”. We brought a corn variety (H 6303) we couldn’t get in down, but when we reached there they told us that variety was available in the village little shop, so we bought and gave them.

Purpose of the visit
• Demonstrations on planting and fertilizer application
• To deliver fertilizer and seeds.
• Deliver a twine

Topics
1. Greetings
Fred gave greetings from Saint Paul Area Synod, King of Kings Lutheran Church and US Advisory Committee.
2. Review of Handouts
o Fertilizer needs template was filled and left to the box file of the congregation
o Plant population handout was reviewed
o Fertilizer application handout was reviewed


3. Rain gauge
The rain started during mid night, so they couldn’t put their rain gauge, but we discussed about rain fall recording with reference to Mlowa and Nduli where they were able to record 13 mm and 40 mm respectively.

4. Demonstrations
It is there second year training, we did refresh training on how to use twine during seed planting and the way to place fertilizer 5 cm on each side of seed. We reminded them to remember to do a crop rotation, so they are supposed to plant corn in the plot they planted beans last year and plant corn in the corn plot.

5. Fertilizer and seed delivery
According to the soil analysis of the soil of this area, types of fertilizer recommended are NPK (10-18-24).The congregation was given NPK 2 bags and 4 bags of seeds. They were told to apply this fertilizer at the time of planting.

Comments/questions from audience
 Comment from Pastor; Zero tillage minimizes costs of production, and they have seen the advantage of leaving crop residues by looking the field where they left crop residues last year the soil seem loose and easy to work on this year.
 They think the record form is not giving them enough room to fill in events/records.
The answer was last year we told them, they should write some notes in other pieces of paper and that is what they did in their box file.
 Comments, they advice the importance of heaving Micro-Loans to facilitate their ability to practice what they learnt.
 The pastor asked if we can give them sprayer(20 liters size) since last year they had a problem of getting a sprayer to rent
I told them, I will discuss with my Director, Inst. 0f Ag and see if will be possible to get one for them.

Conclusions/Recommendations
We highly recommend them to follow again all agronomic practices we are teaching and they will be successful in the crop production more than what they were able to get last year. We encouraged them to maintain their position of being the best out of all 20 parishes we have now.